Philippines DSO will slip dramatically

Reports out of Manila suggest that the Philippines will badly miss the June 2015 ITU-mandated digital switchover. The country’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) admits that it might not even make a 2020 date.

Alvin Bernard Blanco, chief of the NTC’s Broadcast Services Division, told local press that the switch-over could take another 5-10 years, and that the nation’s Information and Communications Technology Office is still working on a migration plan.

In December 2014 the NTC confirmed that it would adopt Japan’s ISDB-T digital standard which calls for a series of 6MHz channels in the 512-698 MHz frequency range (channels 21-51) for DTT.